In a community partnership with Ipswich County Library, a gathering that honoured the richness of the Black experience through poetry, storytelling, and the wisdom of lived memory was shared. An afternoon of listening, learning and leaning in to the beauty and complexity of Black voices. At the heart of it all stood Derrick Boddington Thomas - a legendary voice whose presence anchored the room with grace, humour, and deep historical insight.

In Our Voice was never intended to be a performance. It was a space of reverence. A space where the spoken word became a bridge between generations and where the stories of the past illuminated the path forward and when Derrick took the floor, the room shifted.  

Ipswich County Library, in hosting this event, became more than a place of books, it became where stories are not only stored, but shared. A place where the past was honoured, the present engaged and the future imagined.